Classic Profile -- Dr. Stewart B. Simms, Jr.

Posted: Sunday, May 06, 2001

By M.A. BarnesStaff Writer

At 10:30 a.m. today, Beech Haven Baptist Church will honor Dr. Simms with a surprise. If you read this before 10:30 a.m., don't give away the surprise. Wait to congratulate him after church. A special service featuring, among other things, his best friend Brad Stephenson, former pastor of Athens Christian Church; Dr. Ken Hemphill, president of the Southwest Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth will deliver the sermon. All of Dr. and Mrs. Simms' immediate family have traveled to Athens and will be introduced. There will be a humorous skit of This is Your Life, with Simms' youngest son David playing his father as a young man. There will be many other surprises, including a book of letters and a monetary love offering. A reception will be held at 4 p.m. at the church as well.

Dr. Stewart Simms will celebrate 20 years today as minister of Beech Haven Baptist Church in Athens. He has been a leader of not only his congregation and of the ministry of the church, but a wonderful husband and father as well. He is well known for the care he takes in his sermon preparation and delivery, and his sermons show great depth of insight. One person said listening to the depth, style, content and substance of his sermons was like eating a fine meal at a gourmet restaurant every Sunday. Dr. Simms takes good care of his people, especially in crisis situations. He has great depth of personal integrity, strong convictions and believes the Bible is the word of God without error. Congratulations to him and his family on this day of recognition for a remarkable job of leading the church for 20 years.

Hails from: Greer, S.C., where his father, Stewart Simms, Sr. was pastor of First Baptist Church for 20 years before retirement.

Birthday: Oct. 26, 1946 in Fort Worth, Texas.

School days: I lived in Richmond, Va. until I was 16. Then we moved to Greer, S.C. where I attended Greer High School and Furman University, majoring in psychology.

Ministry: I was saved when I was nine years old and I knew that God had called me into the ministry. I went to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, the same place where I'd been born 22 years earlier.

Bible study group: While at Furman, a roommate of mine and I started a Bible study group on the Furman campus. That group is still there and is a very vital part of the religious life on campus.

A little romance: I met Dianne Lucas at Southwestern Baptist Seminary. When she graduated, we married. She worked as a social worker while I continued getting my master's and doctoral degrees.

First date: We went to church. Dianne came to the seminary because she felt like God wanted her to work with young people. The first Saturday on campus, Dianne came up to me in the cafeteria and said I must be Stewart Simms. I asked how she knew and she said she just knew -- that some of the other girls in the dorm had been describing how I looked and how people tended to listen when I talked. Very flattering. I went over to her table and we got acquainted, so I guess you could say we met over a plate of beans. She said she was going to First Baptist Church in Dallas to see a friend the next day, so I asked if I could go. I thought a group was going, but when she picked me up at my dorm, it was just her. So that was our first date.

How he asked: Actually we'd broken up. But she had two papers to do -- exegesis papers that are a breakdown of scriptures, learning the meaning of every word and she didn't know how to do them. I was supposed to go with a revival team to Mexico, a trip I'd really looked forward to. But when I discovered she needed help, I said how about if I stay here and help you. I taught her how to do them and we labored in the library the whole Thanksgiving weekend. By the end of that time, we both knew that we were meant for each other. Shortly after that, I called her father and asked for her hand.

Dianne: Dianne is from Fort Walton Beach, Fla. She had gone to Samford University and graduated from Florida State University. After she taught school a year, she felt God was calling her into the ministry as a counselor, so she went to the Southwestern Baptist Seminary for additional training. We married May 22, 1971 after she graduated. It's almost 30 years now, with 20 of them here in Athens. The congregation has not only seen us grow up, but also seen us grow old.

First job: I pastored Pecan Grove Baptist Church in Gatesville, Texas. Dianne and I were a real team. She taught Sunday School and played the piano. I led the music, sang solos, then I preached. Some of our sweetest memories are of baptizing new believers in the creek that ran beside the small white frame church. It was in the middle of a grove of pecan trees.

Pastoring: After pastoring First Baptist Church in Westminster, S.C. and Eastlan Baptist Church in Greenville, S.C., in 1981, I was called to be the pastor of Beech Haven Baptist Church. We had prayed for ''roots,'' not realizing how deep God was going to plant those roots here in Athens. We feel so blessed. We love Athens.

Jane Eldridge: Jane was secretary to the church for 25 years, and almost all the time I've been here. She knew everyone in town, who was related to whom and their personal stories. Whenever I would go into a home or hospital, she, in her delightful, loving Southern way, would be a wealth of information she thought I needed to know, and the ''aunt who was in the hospital or the child who was in grade school.'' We had a wonderful relationship and she loved me no matter what, and that was mutual.

Family: In Walton County, Dianne teaches children in grades three through five who have learning disabilities. She has always had a calling to work with children and teaches children's church and mission activities. We have three children. Jonathan is 24, a graduate of Piedmont College and of the police academy. He now works as a law enforcement officer. Catherine is 22, a student at the University of Georgia, and works part time at the office of University Architects. David, 20, is a Truett-McConnell student, active in the UGA Baptist Student Union where he is a drummer in the Impact Praise Band.

For fun: I love to fish -- bass only -- and I love my fishing buddies. I also love to golf, and I love my golfing buddies. We've played every Wednesday afternoon for the past 15 years. I also love to grow roses.

Heroes: My father, Stewart B. Simms, Sr. who was the ultimate role model for me; Dr. Ken Hemphill, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, who has led the largest theological seminary during some very troublesome times in Southern Baptist history; he has led with dignity, courage and faith in God. Larry Shackelford, former youth and college minister who died March 13, 1999. My other heroes are my Beech Haven staff, my golfing partners and my fishing buddies.

Ancestors: I've always been very proud and humbled to be a part of the Simms family. I traveled to Scotland on my sabbatical to visit places of my ancestry, and I come from a long line of ministers. My great, great grandfather was the pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas. My own father is a retired minister, as is my brother. God continues to use this family to share the ''good news'' of the gospel.

Sabbaticals: I was granted a sabbatical in 1998, and Dianne and I went to Oxford, England with a study tour from Southwestern Baptist Seminary. We stayed at Regency College in Oxford and were in England and Scotland for 21 days. I loved the church history, the great music, the culture and the people. It was a time of refreshing and reflection. I took quite a number of pictures. I've also taken a trip to the Holy Land, on mission trips to Mexico and awareness tours to California and the Grand Canyon. I also went to Cooperstown, N.Y. to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Book: I've kept a personal journal for 25 years and I am writing my first book titled, ''Things Not Spoken.'' It deals with the joys and heartaches of being a pastor -- about things of which a pastor often cannot speak.

Favorite movies: The love story, ''Somewhere in Time,'' and ''Final Countdown,'' a history of Pearl Harbor. You might say I'm a romantic history buff.

Family fun: We try to take some vacations together. People have given us their cabins at Lake Burton and that is wonderful. We love plays and going out to dinner. Sometimes Dianne and I have date night. We like to go to Rafferty's most, but we like all the restaurants.

Maintaining love: I think being patient with each other, loving the other unconditionally, and understand their thinking.

Crossover Athens: This is designed to be a gathering and a coming together of all racial and denominational lines. We hosted it last time because we are one of the larger facilities. It is primarily all Christians coming together and praying for Athens -- its institutions, political and spiritual leaders and those of the nation. It is designed to help us function as the Body of Christ should function in unity, praying for spiritual awakening and moral uprightness in the nation. We have hosted Korean, African American, Caucasian and many different denominations. We've also had a few of the parachurch ministers -- people administering to those with addictions. We've had campus ministries and prison ministers. We had 800 people in the sanctuary and a very lively evening. It was very interesting, very revealing and very moving. We perhaps need to do a better job of publicizing it to the community.

Philosophy: Main purpose for which we were made was to know God intimately and to make Him known to others. What drives my life and is the passion of my life is in knowing Him in a personal way and in helping others come to find that same fulfillment in Him, through His son, Jesus Christ. For a long time I talked about knowing God, but only in recent years discovered the depth of intimacy which God makes possible through his son. I've known Christ since I was nine years old; the difference I think is partly because I've learned how to set aside less important things and began to seek after His heart. I learned to cultivate the discipline of silence. Our world is so noisy, demanding and busy that it's difficult sometimes to hear God. In silence He makes Himself known in a deeper way. We have a chorus in one of our hymns that sums it up for me, "To know Him and to make Him known."

This article published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Sunday, May 6, 2001.